


such constellations of possibility

by blackkat



Series: Skywalker prompts [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, First Meetings, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: Savage gasps back to consciousness, body aching, head spinning, the last of the witches’ magic still bleeding from his veins in a green cloud. He jerks up, forcing stiff muscles to move because Maul isalone, Maul is facing Sidious and they’ve never been so easily outmatched before—But when the world stops spinning, it’s very, very obvious that he’s not on Mandalore anymore.
Relationships: Savage Opress/Luke Skywalker
Series: Skywalker prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941652
Comments: 24
Kudos: 554
Collections: Star Wars Alternate Universes





	such constellations of possibility

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Luke/Savage, time travel?

Savage gasps back to consciousness, body aching, head spinning, the last of the witches’ magic still bleeding from his veins in a green cloud. He jerks up, forcing stiff muscles to move because Maul is _alone_ , Maul is facing Sidious and they’ve never been so easily outmatched before—

But when the world stops spinning, it’s very, very obvious that he’s not on Mandalore anymore.

“Are you all right?” a quiet voice asks, and Savage shakes his head, putting a hand up to press against the throb of a headache that’s forming.

“Fine,” he says curtly, and forces his eyes to focus enough to take in the figure sitting across the small campfire. A Human, with blond hair and a serious expression, who’s watching him carefully but without fear.

No matter how bad his eyes are right now, Savage can see the lightsaber clipped to his belt, but—he’s wearing black.

Carefully, Savage sits up in the sand, trying to pinpoint where exactly they are, but it’s not a planet he’s familiar with. The stars don’t strike a chord, either, and he looks up at the moons in the sky for one long moment and the drops his gaze to the Human.

“Who are you?” he demands. If this is one of Sidious’s assassins—

“My name is Luke,” the man says. “Luke Skywalker.”

Like the general. Like the _Jedi_. Savage wants to snarl, but it’s hard to take a breath. “Maul?” he demands. “Where is Maul?”

Luke frowns a little, but he doesn’t move. “I didn’t see anyone else,” he says. “Just you. The Force pulled me to you just as came out of the cave.”

“Cave,” Savage repeats, bewildered. “I—what planet is this?”

“Tatooine,” Luke says, and nods to something behind Savage. “And that cave. I’ve never seen it before, but I think I needed to.”

Because of the Force. Savage grips his horns, leaning forward, and tries to breathe. “We were fighting Sidious,” he starts, and Luke's sharp breath makes him freeze.

“Sidious?” Luke demands, and suddenly the wary distance is gone. He hits the ground on his knees in front of Savage, reaching for him, and demands, “The _Emperor_? You were fighting the Emperor? Where? How?”

“My brother and I,” Savage says, and swallows. He was dying. He _knows_ he was dying. “But he wasn’t the Emperor. Just the Chancellor. How long has it been since the Clone Wars started?”

Luke pauses, and his eyes flicker towards the cave. “The Clone Wars?” he repeats. “They started before I was born. Maybe—twenty-six years now.”

Twenty-six years. The chances that Maul is still alive are—tiny, given his nature. Given how close he walks to the edge of destruction on the very best day, with Savage to help him. Savage’s breath shudders out of him, ragged, and he digs his fingers into the sand, tries to fight the wash of despair that rises. Another brother lost, and just as with Feral, he has no idea what happened to him. No idea, just a surging sense of guilt that fills his chest.

And then, gentle, a hand curls around his shoulder.

“It’s all right,” Luke says.

“No,” Savage growls. “My brother is likely _dead_. I don’t know what brought me here, but I _lost him_ —”

“I told you,” Luke says, pointed. “The cave brought you. And it brough me here as well. It called us both.”

Something shivers down Savage’s spine, and he looks up. Looks into blue eyes bright in the moonlight, full of something that resonates strangely.

Too powerful, Savage thinks, and wants to touch the same way it’s tempting to touch the colorful flames at the heart of a blaze. Too close to the Force, whether he’s Jedi or Sith.

“The cave,” Savage echoes. “I— _what_ cave?”

Luke grips his shoulder, pulls him up and around, and points towards a looming cliff that juts from the sand. “There,” he says. “You were at the edge of it, like you’d fallen out of it.”

It looks…average. Like any other dark cavern stretching back into the earth. Savage has no idea where it came from, but—it took him away from Maul.

Except Savage was dying. He’s back to how he was, now, like his death bled all the power from his bones, and he scrapes in a ragged breath, then bows his head.

“I lost,” he says, and it’s like that moment on Dooku's ship all over again, Ventress snarling at him to get up as Dooku's lightning shook his bones. Defeat, Savage thinks, and it’s bitter and aching in his mouth. They failed. _He_ failed.

“Maybe,” Luke says, and a hand opens in front of Savage, holds there, waiting. “But I think I needed to meet you. I was on my way to rescue my friends, but—if we can stop Sidious, that will be enough to save all of them.”

Savage’s laughter cracks out of his throat. “ _Stop_ him?” he demands. “Didn’t you just hear me? I _lost_.”

“But we know who he is,” Luke says, and his eyes are so blue Savage can't look away. “We don’t just have to fight him. We can make sure everyone knows, and then he won't be able to hide.”

Savage stares at him. Maul wanted Sidious’s favor, his power. Wanted revenge, too, by turns. He wouldn’t have revealed him, wouldn’t have dared, even when he was maneuvering around Dooku and undermining him at every turn. But—

Savage wants power, but more than that, he wants to keep Maul safe.

“It’s too late,” he says. “If you know, if everyone knows—”

Luke rolls his eyes, like Savage is the ridiculous one here. “Not _now_ ,” he says. “But you came out of that cave. It has to have another end, right?”

Savage’s breath catches, and he looks into the darkness.

The Force does strange things sometimes. Bends in strange ways. This—this is the strangest of all, and yet.

And yet it feels like a chance, in a way nothing has since Savage first hung the amulet around his neck and left to look for Maul.

“Do you really think you’ll be enough to change things?” Savage demands, but he’s already dragging himself to his feet, grabbing his lightsaber out of the sand. When Luke rises too, he catches Savage’s elbow, steadying him, and doesn’t waver beneath Savage’s weight.

“Maybe not,” Luke says, and smiles at him. It has an edge to it that Anakin Skywalker's has never had, something like conviction. Something that echoes the way he looks, too close to something vast. It makes Savage think of burned hands, and whether the burn would be worth it, and—

His fingers still itch to touch.

“But you're going to try anyway,” Savage says, and knows he’s right.

“I'm a Jedi,” Luke says. “Like my father before me. I’ll never stop trying.”

Savage breathes, and leans into his steadiness, and tries not to think of all of Maul’s fractured pieces just barely held together by purpose. “I’ll help you,” he says, and it doesn’t matter that Luke is a Jedi. It doesn’t matter that he has no idea what they’ll find on the other side of the cave.

If Luke will try, so can he.


End file.
